What we do

We are a UK Registered Charity which has been established to create a world where women and girls can live their lives free from the fear of sexual and gender-based violence.  

Initially focused on Africa, South Asia and the UK, we seek to achieve sustainable societal change primarily by offering a two-tiered educational programme:
  • Empowerment workshops for women and girls, comprising a fact-filled motivational discussion which seeks to build participants' confidence and is then crystallised through physical self-defence skills. The content has been created to empower, educate and protect women and girls who are vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence and, importantly, who feel they have no voice or support
  • Interactive workshops for eight to 13 year old boys which are specifically designed to build feelings of deep-rooted empathy towards women and girls and, in the longer-term, prevent abusive or violent behaviour

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By supporting Action Breaks Silence, you are taking an important step towards opposing VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN anywhere in the world.


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Fighting Back: Action Breaks Silence’s work in India, South Africa and the UK

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Ending violence against women

According to a 2013 global review of available data, 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. Furthermore, worldwide statistics have shown that over 90% of sexual violence is initiated by someone the survivor or victim of these attacks knows. In our view, both of these figures under-estimate the levels of abuse being experienced and are also over-shadowed by the long term damage done to many women and girls as a result of emotional or financial abuse within their relationships.

In the countries in which we are operating:

In India, surveys have shown that:
  • 848 women or girls are either harassed, raped or killed every single day
 
In South Africa, which - according to the UN office on Crime and Drugs - is ranked first for rapes per capita:
  • Rapes are estimated to take place every 19 seconds
  • A woman/girl is killed by their intimate partner every six hours
  • It is estimated that over 40% of women in South Africa will be raped in their lifetime

In the UK:
  • Approximately 585,000 women are raped or sexually assaulted in England and Wales alone every year; this is a reported figure – we estimate this probably reflects only a small percentage of the real number
  • 33% of 13-17 year old girls in relationships have experienced sexual violence in those relationships; and 1 in 16 of those reported experiencing rape
  • 2 women die at the hands of their intimate partner every week

Action Breaks Silence's journey


Debi Steven, one of the world’s leading personal safety and self-defence instructors, set up Action Breaks Silence in July 2013 to start fighting back. 

Action Breaks Silence gained UK Registered Charity status in October 2014 and - to date - has taught a total of 31,400 women and girls in India and South Africa FREE of charge. In addition, we have run eight pilot sessions of our ground-breaking Boys' Programme in India and South Africa.

Find out more about our mission, the work we do and what we have achieved to date.

EQUALITIES CHAMPION LINDA RILEY JOINS ACTION BREAKS SILENCE AS PATRON

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​We are pleased to announce the appointment of Linda Riley as the first patron of Action Breaks Silence.   Linda is a committed equalities and diversity campaigner and a vocal champion of women's rights - we are thrilled to have her on board.  See Patrons for more information.
"The Alappuzha District Police is very grateful to Ms. Steven and her NGO for volunteering to empower women in Alappuzha and look forward to having more interactions for our mutual benefit."

Police Superintendent, Alappuzha Police, Kerala, India